This invention relates to a stranding machine, particularly for the manufacture of electric cables and conductors. The machine is of the type which has a core wire supply reel on which previously stranded core wire is wound and the axis of which is parallel to the feed (operating) direction of the stranding machine. The latter further has stationarily supported supply reels for receiving the strand elements as well as a take-up reel for the finished stranded product. The axis of the take-up reel is also oriented in the operating direction of the machine.
A cable making machine of the above-outlined type is disclosed, for example, in the periodical SIEMENS ZEITSCHRIFT, 1965, issue No. 1, pages 27-37. According to this publication, the take-up reel is stationarily supported. Such a stationary support of the take-up reel has the disadvantage that the stranding machine may operate only with a single twist length which necessarily changes as a function of the varying coil diameter. Further, the stranding machine of this type can perform no reverse twist which, however, is indispensable for certain applications of the electric cable.